No Shortcuts
by Sp1derAp0calypse
Summary: Disclaimed: I own nothing Kirito never suspected that Heathcliff was actually Ahikiko Kayaba. So yeah. This is what would have happened afterwards in my eyes.


_**Before reading:**_ _After the boss fight on the 75_ _th_ _floor, Kirito didn't think to look at Heathcliff's health bar; so while still suspicious, he did not identify Heathcliff as Akihiko Kayaba or duel him to the death that day. As a result, the game has not been cleared, Heathcliff remains unknown to all around him as Akihiko Kayaba, Asuna is still alive, and floors 76 through 100 remain uncleared._

 _Fourteen. Fourteen people had died not an hour ago._ This was the thought playing through Kirito's mind. _We had planned, we had been careful, we had prepared for every eventuality…but The Skull Reaper had turned all of our planning null and killed fourteen of us._ The Skull Reaper had been killed mere minutes ago, but no one was cheering. The 'Congratulations!' sign didn't seem to realize it was unwelcome in this place of mourning. Kirito didn't check how much Col he had earned or what loot had been dropped; no one did. Everyone clicked Close and shuffled towards the portal. They all had the same thought replaying in their heads. Fourteen. Seconds later when the portal activated, everyone warped their separate ways, content on going home at this early hour and avoiding anyone and everyone for the rest of the day.

Kirito warped to Floor 22, where his log cabin was, but he didn't bother to unequip his gear; the most he did was sheathe his dual blades.

 _Wait. MY log cabin? That didn't sound right_ ; The thought started to seep out of the darkness in Kirito's mind, as if trying hard to remind him that there was something important he had forgotten.

That was when the portal behind me opened again and she stepped out.

 _How could I have forgotten about her?!_ Kirito thought.

"Kirito-kun…"

The pain in her voice was evident; and yet she was unscathed. Fourteen. Kirito opened his arms to comfort her, and she fell into his warm embrace, her head resting on his shoulder as she started to cry. Kirito tightened the hug when he heard her sobs, but soon realized that her tears were rolling down his Coat of Midnight. Kirito released his right hand from her back and accessed his inventory, storing the dual blades and battle armor, leaving him in his usual black pants and shirt.

"Kirito-ku-"

"It's know Asuna. I know."

Silence followed those words. Silence seemed to follow the couple all the way home as well. The joy the couple normally experienced from seeing the log cabin they shared was temporarily missing, grief seemed to have taken its place.

 _Those fourteen would be returning home about now as well._ Kirito thought.

Kirito looked over at Asuna, who must have thought the same thing; a stream was coming out of her eyes now. He took her hand and they walked back into our home together. They both went straight to the bed and laid down, not bothering to get underneath the blankets. Asuna was next to Kirito, back in her regular clothes with her rapier back in her inventory. Grief wouldn't allow them to fall asleep, with minds still too shocked to shut down.

"Kirito-kun...those fourteen…"

She had stopped crying, but her eyes were full of worry, almost identical to when she had rescued me from Kuradeel's murder attempt.

"I know Asuna. But we have to keep fighting. If we quit now it would be a disservice to those fourteen."

Kirito said this more to himself than Asuna, trying to revitalize the fire within himself. It had gone out as soon as The Skull Reaper had fallen. It reminded him too much of…them. Those fourteen were powerless to stop their own deaths, but he alone had lived and defeated the enemy. It was too similar…much too similar…to…

 _Sachi_.The name flashed in his head, blocking out all other thoughts, demanding his entire mind to pay attention to this one terrible thought.

He then realized then why his fire had died. Flashbacks started to play inside his head, showing the demise of the Moonlit Black Cats. He had had dreams of this before, each time he was unable to save them. Not even Sachi.

 _NO!_ He silently screamed, trying to repress the memories. _NO!_

An angel's pained voice cut through the memories, "Kirito-kun…I can't stop thinking…what if…you had been one of those fourteen. And the fact that we lost fourteen of our finest…it makes this game seem hopeless. What if we can't…" The tears started to well up in her eyes again.

Those comments were both the savior and the captor of Kirito's mind, saving him from the terrible flashbacks, but presenting him with terrible 'what-ifs'. _What if Asuna was one of those fourteen? What if we really can't beat this game?_

"Kirito-kun…I don't want to fight anymore. We've been so close to death so many times now…how much more until we run out of luck?" Asuna asked. The worry was evident; and Kirito knew how she felt.

Kirito wasn't sure how to respond. She was voicing the worries that he harbored, but never allowed himself to acknowledge. _How long until I really do run out of luck and die?_

"Kirito-kun…I don't know what I would have done if you had been one of those fourteen…I wouldn't have the strength to trudge through this hell if I didn't have you by my side." With that comment she slid closer to Kirito, arms wrapping around him and pulling him closer, as if she was making sure he really wasn't one of those fourteen.

Kirito hugged her back, and felt something inside him spark. His fire had reignited.

 _That's why._ he thought. _I will keep fighting; for Asuna. I made a promise._

With that last thought both Asuna and Kirito fell asleep, using each other's presence not only as warmth, but as confirmation that they were both still alive, comforting the both of them and letting their minds know it was OK to fall asleep; as long as the other was alive.

Asuna woke up to the virtual sun streaming through the window and onto her face. It wasn't the sun that woke her up however, it was the cold. She realized that no one was in her arms, sharing heat with her, and almost started to panic before her eyes focused and saw Kirito sitting on the side of the bed, looking out the window. Relief surged through her as she was reassured that she still had her Kirito-kun. She sat up and moved next to him, leaning her head on his shoulders without a word. I _don't want anything to change; I would be content with life if I spent the rest of it right here, next to my Kirito-kun._ She thought.

Kirito didn't react to my head on his shoulder, he was deep in thought. It was silent, but neither was eager to break the silence.

Several minutes later he decided what to say; "Asuna, I don't want to lose you, and the boss fights will only get harder from here. So please, please will you consider staying away from the front lines?"

As much as Asuna wanted to agree with him, she knew she couldn't. "Will you?" she responded.

"I promised to get you back home Asuna, I owe you my life, so please; stay here, and I will fight for you."

Asuna lifted her head off his shoulder and looked into his eyes, "Kirito-kun! I owe my life to you as well, and if you died, I would have no reason to live. So please…stay here with me." It was the coward's way out; she knew that. But she was done risking death. She had a reason to live now, and he was sitting right next to her.

"That isn't me Asuna. I'm not going to sit here and do nothing while others risk their life for me, especially not when I could be out there, working to get you home."

"Kirito if you die out there I will kill myself!" her voice was frantic. She wanted nothing more than for him to stay away from enemies for the rest of his life; _I need him._ She thought.

Silence followed that comment. She didn't want either of them to fight, but he wanted to go and fight without her. She couldn't allow that.

"Asuna I don-"

"I'll come with you."

"What?!"

"I'll fight with you," she responded; with more confidence this time. "Since you insist on fighting, I'll come with you and we can protect each other. But I won't allow you to risk your life without me by your side."

"…nothing I say will convince you to stay here while I fight huh."

"Nothing."

"Ok. But…don't die out there. I need you too." With this comment he finally looked away from the view outside and turned to look at Asuna's eyes.

Asuna was starting to blush. She didn't know why, she had just told him the exact same thing, but somehow hearing those words from him confirmed that he was her only true love; and it made her blush.

"But for now, let's take another break. I'm sure no one's in any sort of mood to attempt any dungeon for a while after that," he said.

"Yeah; everyone needs a break after that."

Neither was in any mood to do anything still, so they both laid back down, this time pulling the blankets over themselves. Even though Asuna was plenty warm, she rested her head on Kirito's chest and wrapped her arms around him to make sure he was kept close. Asuna could feel Kirito's arms wrap around her as well, pulling her closer, as they both fell asleep.

 _-A month later-_

"Asuna! Switch!" Kirito's voice rang through the dungeon as he parried an attack from the lizard monster, giving Asuna a clear shot at the lizard's stomach.

Asuna rushed forward, activating a sword skill to repeatedly stab at the monster's open stomach. As the monster recover and raised its shield to parry the jabs, Asuna ducked low and swiped at its feet, leaving the monster with health just a little above the red as Asuna yelled "Switch!"

Kirito and Asuna were masters of Switching, having practiced together for months now. They were seamless, giving the enemy no time to recover while leaving no spot open for the enemy to make an attack, and the onslaught they provided was merciless, punishing the enemy for even the slightest mistakes with a strong sweep of the sword or stab of a rapier.

Asuna jumped back, giving Kirito room to run forward and launch himself over the monster, the monster just barely blocking the attack from above with his shield, but unfortunately leaving his backside wide open. Cardinal was not a stupid system, the monster was still aware of the second foe behind it, but was forced to focus all of his attention into not getting double-sliced; which is why the monster stood no chance to this deadly duo. Asuna, taking full advantage of the situation, ran up and impaled the monster with her rapier, right in the back. The monster almost immediately exploded into red rectangles, and a Congratulations! sign appeared in front of Asuna, along with a second screen showing her she had leveled up.

"Kirito! I leveled up! Finally!" She had finally hit level 100. Kirito had hit level 100 almost 2 weeks ago, explaining to Asuna that if they hit max level, they would have the best chance of survival. So Kirito had agreed to help Asuna hit level 100 as well.

"Alright! Now we're truly an unstoppable force!" Most of the other players had lost their fighting drive after hearing about the monstrosity that guarded and the 75th floor and the casualties it had caused, but Kirito didn't take loss like most people. As a result, Kirito immediately went leveling, and soon afterwards convinced Asuna to come with him. The average level for the Assault Team was Level 80 now, making Kirito and Asuna the most powerful players in the game, at max level.

"Let's go into town and celebrate!" Asuna exclaimed. "Go to a restaurant or something!"

"But your cooking is so much better," Kirito replied, completely serious.

Asuna laughed, "Come on! We have so much money from all that grinding that we can buy whatever we want. I'm sure we can find something!"

"Alright." Kirito gave in.

Asuna and Kirito walked down the street, crowded with other players and NPC shops. Asuna was looking left and right, dragging Kirito every which way looking at every display on all the carts. Kirito couldn't help but smile, the whole experience was enjoyable despite the fact that he had to constantly be on his toes for when Asuna spotted the next thing that was intriguing to her and took off with her still holding his hand.

It was nearing lunch-time, Kirito didn't have a watch with him, but he could tell. He had a supernatural sense for all things food-related. "Asuna, how about you keep looking around and I go get some lunch, we can meet over at that fountain," he said, pointing to the fountain at the end of the road. "Ok!" Asuna agreed. They split hands and Kirito walked back to a small food cart he had seen a short ways back.

It was then that Kirito was ripped back to reality as he realized that everyone was staring at him. He hadn't noticed while he was with Asuna, but now that they were separated, he had nothing to distract him from the fact that most of everyone in the small road couldn't take their eyes off of him. He tried his best to ignore them, but couldn't help but overhear small bits of conversation from people glancing over at his direction.

"Fourteen people…"

"Boss-fight…"

"Beater." This one was said in disgust. Kirito didn't know who had made the particular comment, but he knew that whoever said it wasn't talking to anyone else.

"Hey! You! You're that dual-wielding Beater aren't you?!" One man addressed Kirito from a small circle that started to form around Kirito.

"Yeah that's me," Kirito responded, his voice daring the man to continue."

"If you could solo the boss on the 74th floor, why did you let fourteen people die on the 75th floor?" Anger was in this comment; anger and accusation. Kirito swiped his hand down and equipped his Coat of Midnight to further prove his identity.

Before Kirito could respond more voices started emerging from the circle that had formed around Kirito.

"Yeah! Those fourteen are YOUR fault!"

"If you had soloed it those people would still be alive!"

"Beater!"

"Monster!"

"Yeah! Monster!"

Kirito didn't respond to the onslaught, but kept on walking, the circle following him with their comments. Kirito was lucky that all the shops were NPC controlled; otherwise he might not have been able to get any food. Before he reached the shop however, one more voice chimed in from the circle.

"You could have saved them! It's your fault! You let other people die when you were a Beater!" This comment triggered something inside Kirito. A memory leaked through his mind he had spent the last 5 minutes crowd-proofing.

 _Sachi._ Suddenly Kirito's surroundings changed. He was no longer in a street, but in a cube-shaped room. Alarms were blaring and monsters were appearing all over the place, meanwhile the only exit had blocked itself off. Kirito instinctively pulled out his dual blades, ready to fight. He could see Sachi and the others, separated from him by a wall of monsters. Then something snapped.

Kirito started swinging his blades viciously, raining death upon any monster that neared him, attempting to cut a path through to the rest of his guild. He was screaming his lungs out in a war cry so vicious that the monsters staggered a bit, allowing Kirito to hack and slash some more through the monsters; but behind the monsters he could see his guild members falling. Blue rectangles mixed with red rectangles as they fought the best they could, desperate for survival

It was with one last glance that Kirito realized that he would be watching Sachi die again. He couldn't break through the monsters fast enough. Still he fought, grief not allowing him to further process those thoughts into defeat. It was a short few moments later that Kirito looked to the side and saw Sachi. And then there were blue rectangles.

"NO! SACHI!" Rage mixed with grief coursed through Kirito, making him swing his blades faster and faster, until every monster in the room was gone. With that he was back in the street, the circle of people still around him. But Kirito was on the ground, crouching and clutching his head with his swords lying at his side.

Asuna heard the battlecry, and immediately identified it as Kirito's, but she knew what kind of battlecry it was. It was the very same battlecry she had heard when Kirito faced Gleam Eyes, and she was afraid. She ran to the sound, and forced her way through the crowd that had formed, to see her Kirito-kun slashing at the air with his dual blades, with the same look he had when he faced Gleam Eyes. Just as suddenly as she had heard the battlecry, Kirito suddenly dropped his swords, dropped to the ground, and clutched his head, repeating the name "Sachi…Sachi…"

Asuna rushed to his side, storing his swords in their shared item storage and putting her arms on his shoulders, lifting him up and started to guide him away from the crowd, before someone commented.

"He let fourteen people die! How can you even touch him?"

Asuna snapped. With her hands still on his shoulders, she was already outside the circle, but she turned so that she could face the person who had made the comment. She was yelling, barely keeping herself from screaming, "LET fourteen people die? He would never let ANYONE die! When we walked in that room, the door sealed itself and warp crystals ceased to work! Three people were dead before we knew what happened! I'd like to see you up there in the heat of battle, facing the Skull Reaper and its one-hit KO scythes!"

The crowd was shocked to say the least. No one in the boss battle had talked about it, so the general public didn't know anything other than fourteen people had died.

"One-hit KO?!"

"Warp crystals stopped working?!"

Asuna continued to lead Kirito away from the crowd and to the fountain; she was too upset to talk anymore. They had upset her Kirito-kun, and as a result, upset her. As they finally tore free from the street populated with shops and reached the fountain, Asuna guided Kirito to sit down on the stone bench around the fountain and then sat down next to him. Kirito stared down at his lap for a while longer, still reliving the moment that Sachi died.

"Kirito-kun…are you ok?" Asuna asked, worried. "Because I understand if you want to go home now and rest."

Once again an angel's voice pierced through the darkness consuming his mind. _I may have lost Sachi, but I still have Asuna._ The thought interrupted the flashback, bringing it suddenly to an end."Thanks," Kirito said as he lifted his head, looking directly into Asuna's worried eyes. "I'm ok now."

"Are you sure? We can go home if you like, really. I won't mind."

"I'm sure; I just wish I had remembered to buy some food."

Asuna sighed, he was fine. "Let's go to a restaurant then," she said, her regular smile returning as she realized their shopping-day was saved.

 _As long as I still have Asuna,_ he thought as he got up from the bench. _I can fight_.


End file.
